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GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 169
amazed to find a man of such, attainments dressed in a coarse attire of
deer skin. Nor was he less surprised when Priber frankly admitted
that he belonged to the order of Jesuits; that, acting under instruc
tions from his superior, he sought to organize not only the Cherokees
but all the southern Indians into one confederacy, to instruct them in
the useful arts, to teach them habits of industry, and, last but not least,
by welding them into one compact and independent mass, to detach
them from the British crown. Oglethorpe was moved to admiration
for his prisoner, but since Georgia was a Protestant colony, from the
privilege of which Catholics were excluded by charter, he deemed Priber
a dangerous man in the province, not only for political but equally for
religious reasons. He, therefore, caused him to be imprisoned at Fred-
erica. Papers found on his person revealed somewhat more in detail
the magnificent scheme of empire which he hoped to establish. Entries
in his private journal told of a secret treasurer in Charleston from
whom he was receiving funds. Had Priber not been arrested there is
no telling what mischief he might have wrought. Dying suddenly
while imprisoned at Frederiea, his tragic death brought a sense of
relief. Thus fell the curtain upon one of the strangest of dramas.
We -now come to another singular episode. It transpired in 1749,
six years after Oglethorpe's return to England. For a while an Indian
outbreak of serious magnitude seemed to be threatened as its natural
consequence, but happily bloodshed was averted. Rev. Thomas Bosom-
worth, an English minister, sent over by the trustees, had married Mary
Musgrove, the Creek woman who had acted as interpreter for Ogle
thorpe during his first interview with the Indians. During the life
time of her former husband, Mary had maintained friendly relations
with the whites. It was not long after her second marriage, however,
that she was persuaded by Bosomworth to present a claim of 5,000
pounds against the colony for her services as interpreter and for dam
ages to the property of her first husband.
Cinder the influence of Bosomworth she was also induced to declare
herself an Indian princess, the true Empress of the Creek Indians;
and to support this contention Malatche, a chief of the Lower Creeks,
was persuaded to recognize her as a sister. Nor was this all. Mary
demanded three islands off the coast of Georgia, to wit, Ossabaw, Sapelo ,
and St. Catharine, all of which had been reserved by the Indians for
pleasure grounds. Her demand likewise included a tract of land near
Savannah. Mary claimed that, in making this demand, she was not
actuated by mercenary motives; that had she considered her own self-
interest she could have made a fortune out of the colony ; and that,
had she desired to do so, it lay in her power to turn the whole Creek
nation against the English, a result which would certainly have proved
disastrous to Oglethorpe's humane project.
Strange to say, some of the most influential men in the-colony
espoused her cause, among them Maj. William Horton, commander of
Oglethorpe's regiment at Frederiea, lately deceased; Colonel Heron,
who succeeded him, and who afterwards became commander of his
majesty's forces in Georgia, besides many others. But President
Stephens refused to recognize the validity of her claims, either to royal
descent or for damages against the province; and he was, in fact, dis-